Joanna Bernabei-McNamee on Building a Program

Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, Head Coach - BC Women's Basketball, became the eighth women’s basketball coach in Boston College program history on April 11, 2018. In 2019-20, her second season at BC, Bernabei-McNamee was named the Coach of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference. She led BC to an impressive 20-12 overall record and a fourth place finish in the conference with an 11-7 record.

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Annelie Schmittel on Caring for Others

Annelie Schmittel serves as Vice President of Player Development for the Philadelphia 76ers. Schmittel is responsible for creating, managing and overseeing the holistic development and implementation of programs that support the professional and personal growth of 76ers players, staff and families. Prior to joining the 76ers, Schmittel was a member of the Oakland Raiders player engagement staff.

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Chris Singleton on Forgiveness and Impact

Chris Singleton is a former professional athlete drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2017. Following the loss of his mother in a racially motivated mass shooting, Chris has now become an inspirational speaker and best-selling author who has shared his message of unity and racial reconciliation with clients such as: Microsoft, Biogen, Houston Texans, Washington Wizards, etc.

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Joe Ferraro on Leveraging Curiosity

Joe Ferraro is currently entering his 23rd year as an educator, teaching 12th grade English. Joe also teaches public speaking and creative writing. In addition to his work in the classroom, he is the founder of damngoodconversations.com. Damn Good Conversations is a company whose mission it is to teach you repeatable ways to have the best conversations in your life and work. His flagship service is a weekly personal growth podcast, which is called “One Percent Better.”

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Lindsay Kaplan on Empowering Chiefs

Lindsay Kaplan is the co-founder and Chief Brand Officer of Chief, a private network designed specifically for women leaders — rising VP level through CEO — to strengthen their experience in the C-suite, cross-pollinate power across industries, and effect change from the top-down. She is an award-winning marketer and communications strategist who previously served as VP of Communications and Brand at Casper.

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Dr. Kensa Gunter on Psychological Safety

Dr. Kensa Gunter is a licensed psychologist & a Certified Mental Performance Consultant based in Atlanta, GA. She provides services to individuals, teams, & organizations and describes her work as being at the intersection of mental health, mental performance, culture and sport. Dr. Gunter also currently serves as the President of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology.

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Steve Mesler on Being Bigger than Sports

Steve Mesler is the Co-Founder and CEO of Classroom Champions, a non-profit that brings together children and the world’s best athletes to mentor and teach kids the skills they need to succeed in and out of the classroom. After winning an Olympic Gold Medal in the 4-man bobsled at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, Steve was inspired to bring the values, lessons, and experiences he and his fellow Olympic and Paralympic athletes had gained through sport into classrooms.

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Brant Menswar on Non-Negotiable Values

Brant Menswar is a best-selling author, performance coach, named one of the country’s “Top 10" speakers in motivation and CEO/Founder of bookstarPR. His books and Top 200 podcast (Thoughts That Rock) expand on his ground-breaking work around values-based leadership described as “disarmingly simple and incredibly powerful.”

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Jay Wright on Leadership and the Unifying Power of Basketball

Jay Wright has become a mainstay in the world of College Basketball. He was recently inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he’s won 2 National Championships (one in 2016 and one in 2018), and he took a team to the Final Four in 2009, becoming one of the all-time greats when it comes to college basketball. He’s led Villanova, the team he coaches, to 6 Big East Conference Championships and 14 NCAA Tournaments.

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Candace Parker on Fear and Growth

Candace Parker is one of the best basketball players to ever lace up their sneakers. In high school, Candace won the 2003 and 2004 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year. She won player of the year honors in college before becoming the first pick of the WNBA draft.

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Ryan Holiday on the Power of Stoicism

Ryan Holiday wrote the books, “The Obstacle is the Way,” “Ego is the Enemy,” “The Daily Stoic,” “Conspiracy” and “Stillness is the Key,” to name a few. He’s written ten books and he is continuing to write. At his core, he is a writer and a media strategist. He’s worked in marketing, and he’s worked with prominent best-selling authors such as Neil Strass, Tony Robbins, and Tim Ferris.

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Muffet McGraw on Championing Women

Muffet McGraw, previously the head coach of Notre Dame Women’s Basketball, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September 2017. As a coach, she’s a 2x National Champion. She is one of 5 coaches, men’s or women’s, in NCAA Division I history with over 930 wins, 9 final fours, and multiple NCAA Championships. Muffet is also the all-time wins leader among single sport coaches in the history of Notre Dame athletics.

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Johanna Faries on Intentional Identity

Johanna Faries is currently the General Manager of Call of Duty. She is highly involved, especially with their Esport league, where she is head of the league. She was also the commissioner of Call of Duty Esports before transitioning to this role. Prior to that, she worked at the National Football League where she was Vice President, she was involved in business development and marketing strategy and fan development, and she was on a pathway to continue to rise up that corporate “ladder.” She’s also a musician.

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Quin Snyder on Coaching with Joy

Quin Snyder was a McDonald’s All-American coming out of high school, eventually going on to play basketball at Duke, where he went to 3 Final Fours as a player. At the age of 32, Quin became the head coach of the University of Missouri Men’s Basketball Team. Today, he’s the head coach of the Utah Jazz, a perennial playoff team in the NBA. Quin has been integral in creating an incredible culture and an incredible core of young players in Utah.

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Sian Beilock on Performing Under Pressure and Leading Teams

Sian Beilock studies how performance anxiety can be exasperated or alleviated in the simple strategies we use to ensure success under pressure. In addition to that, Sian is the president at Barnard College at Columbia University. Prior to her appointment as President, she served as the University of Chicago Executive Vice Provost.

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Astronaut Chris Cassidy from SEAL Teams to Space Teams

Chris Cassidy is currently an astronaut that was previously a Navy Seal from the Naval Academy. Chris was an honor graduate of basic underwater demolition with the Seal Buds Class 192, and he received a bronze star for his work leading a 9-day operation on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

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Elton Brand on Whatever it Takes

Elton Brand had an NBA career that spanned 16 1/2 years. During that time, he was a two-time all-star and one of the top power forwards in the league. He entered the league as the first overall pick in 1999 where he became the co-rookie of the year. Before that, he had an illustrious career at Duke University.

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